Whoopsy

Hi everyone I am new to this board but not new to Porsche or cars for that matter And those who are also on the mbworld.org might reconize me there.

I had an 02 C4S before as my first Porsche but that car kinda leave me wanting for more, I can't pinpoint the exact thing but it's like finally bedding Jessica Alba but found out she only do missionary and with the lights off.

This time around I ordered a 997 Turbo and hoping to have a much better experience.

I ordered my car a few weeks ago and was told my order was 12-13 on the local dealer's waiting list and would not expect to see the car until next year. but a few days after I placed the order I got a call from my salesman that they are getting a bonus car to be build some time in October and it almost got everything I ordered. It is a stick and I ordered tip and the interior is black instead of 2-tone red/black and missing the carbon trim inside. Salesman told me the order cannot be changed now and I will be stuck with whatever option is on that car. Being someone who is borned without the patience gene, I already put a hold on the bonus car.

The question is, do Porsche freeze the order this early? I know Mercedes freezes the order 4 weeks before build and I know that because I just got a call from my Mercedes salesman asking if there is anything I want to change to my ML63 order as the freeze date is coming up.

There is only one Porsche dealer here in Vancouver and they don't exactly have the best track record. Last time when I bought my C4S I ordered the sport exhaust the same day I took delivery, after 9 months when I got rid of the C4S the exhaust still hasn't show up and I always suspected that they never even put in the order.

mastiffdog

Well, first, welcome. I am relatively new around here as well, but not many are watching this board lately, so it has been fairly quiet. Second, yours is the second post relating some type of sexual experience in a car discussion. The other post revolved around Hillary Clinton and Madelaine Allbright, so your post is doing a bit better because you refer to Jessica Alba.

I don't know the drop dead dates on order changes, but it sounds like there would be plenty of time to make changes for an October build if done now, but if it is a bonus allocation, things may be different.

Regardless of the color you ultimately buy, the car is simply amazing. If you lack patience like I did, buy the inbound car if you like the color and other options. I also bought a "launch" car, but the the 997TT launch cars were not launch cars in the traditional sense - they were all very different cars with a wide range of options.

So if you are happy with the bonus car, I'd say go for it and get it early. The earlier you get it, the earlier you'll be having fun.

docjackson1

whoopsy-i have an order on an october build 997tt. it was a car that the dealer was building for a customer who backed out. i took over his order last week and was able to completely change the car to my specs. on monday the dealer gave me a proforma invoice from the porsche ordering system with my name on it showing the specs and the ordering status, so you could assume that october builds are still changeable. i think until the status becomes planned production, you can alter the order. i hope that helps.

Whoopsy

The inbound car is Black and I could live with a black interior instead of the 2-tone, The major difference is the transmission, I was planning on letting my wife drive it once in a while if it has tip and she wasn't too happy about me taking over this bonus car because of that.

She can drive a stick but she is just lazy to change gears, how's the clutch on this one compare with 996?

I will be asking my salesman again in the morning on why can't I change order if the car is not even close to being build yet.

atomic80

First of all, welcome aboard too! I'm not too far down the road from you down here in Bellevue. I have a Turbo also on order for an October build date. I can tell you that it definitely would be too late now to make any changes to that particular order. I ordered mine back in May expecting an August build but because at the time the order was still "changeable" I went ahead and did that which ended up bumping production build from August to October! So, based on that experience, even if you could change the order, I'd more likely recommend against doing that. I was told by my local dealership that any big changes could potentially bump things around and I'd say that manual vs tip is a big change. I'm just curious about one thing, I've never heard of a black/red interior. I'm assuming that you're talking about black/terracotta or even going with their special order option? In any case, I've driven both tip/manual in the 997 and a manual in the 996. I can tell you that the clutch is much lighter in the 997 compared to the 996.

docjackson1

atomic is correct, that if you make a bunch of changes, you can sometimes screw up your date, but you should inquire if you can now make 1 set of changes.

Whoopsy

atomic80: yes I am refering to the black/terracotta one, I am just lazy to type those extra letters

My salesman just told me the same thing, if I change the order now it is going to be bumped to at least december build and my original order was schedule to be build in January, so guess I won't be changing now. I was planning on taking delivery on this one first and then decide whether to cancel my oringial order. With a lighter clutch I think my wife can manage driving a stick. Only reason for ordering tip was because of her as I prefer changing gears myself.

Looks like all our cars have October builds, maybe they will all come over in the same shipment

I think Porsche got the pricing right for the 997 this time around, originally I was going to order a C4S convertible to replace my wife's CLK500 convertible but after options the final price is not much cheaper than a Turbo and I decide to go all the way to get a Turbo instead. Porsche's pricing definitely suckered me into buying it. I will have to part with my CLS55 to make room for it and I am hoping the Turbo won't make me regret getting rid of the CLS.

docjackson1

whoopsey-i guess you should take what you can get. i ordered very few options, only heated seats, limited slip and sports chrono. i wonder how they get a "bonus car" that is already speced out? you think someone ordered then backed out?

atomic80

Looks like there are a lot of October builds just as you said. Mine is scheduled to be built on October 23rd and should take about 1 week. I visited the Porsche factory back in July and learned quite a few things about how Porsche operates. I posted my experiences on that on here I believe so if you did a search you'd probably find it.

Porsche did get their pricing correct this time around but if you dump on the options, that can jump in a big hurry! Just curious, what options does that incoming car have?

Have you driven any of the newer Porsches yet? You should try doing that.

docjackson1

just one point-to keep the dealer honest about actually having an ordered car, you should get from them a pro forma invoice with your name on it, the cars options and the cars status. right around now, you should be 1 stage before planned production.

atomic80

Yes, agreed...you should definitely get one of those forms. I have one for mine and it shows mine being at "stage 1."

docjackson1

i don't know what stage 1 is. if you do a search on this forum, you can see all of the stages. they are mostly six letter abbreviations, that stand for things such as order acknowledged, order accepted, manufacture guaranteed, planned production, etc.

Whoopsy

I haven't driven any of the 997s yet but I really should find sometime to do it.

Spec for bonus car:

Black exterior with black interior
adaptive sports seat
sports chrono
heated seat
floormats
axle-differential lock
cd changer
park assist

My original ordered one has all of the above but it's tip and has the 2-tone terracotta interior, rear wipers, carbon interior and steering wheel but without the cd changer.

At first I kinda suspect someone back out of this one but in this town no one backs out of black 911s and this one happens to be the first Black one, every car in front of this one is either silver or grey so it's highly unlikely to be someone else's car.

From looking at the options I was thinking it's a generic car that Porche has in the system and really is a bonus car that Porsche award to dealers, there is nothing fancy ordered like flashy colors or custom trim interiors. The weird thing is that Prosche actually has bonuses so early in the production, you would have imagine every single Turbo they are building in the first 6 months would have been spoken for.

The only black 911 I know that someone back out of happens to be my first one, it was one of the first 996 C4S here in Vancouver, Basalt Black with sand beige interior and tip. The guy who ordered it was for his girlfriend but they broke up and he doesn't want the car no more.

Whoopsy

btw any chance anyone would know if I can order the thick sports steering wheel seperately? I know the carbon one can be ordered thru Tequipment but I am not sure about this one.

atomic80

Whoopsy,

I have the thicker steering wheel on order but I've elected to go with the one from TechArt instead. It looks extremely thick and FUN to use.



I believe that the factory thicker steering wheel is about $350 USD from Porsche but it might be a bit too late for you to get it. I do think that the factory thicker version is well worth the extra cost but might not be worth it to chance getting your car "bumped." I have one suggestion for you which you might be up for considering. My steering wheel from TechArt does not include a core charge of around $600 which I believe is the cost of the steering wheel itself from Porsche. If you wanted to, you could buy that from me and swap out your steering wheel to the thicker type. I'm expecting to get the one from TechArt sometime in the next couple of months and my car would be here in November/December. I'm not sure if that's something you'd want to do. I'm not sure how much Porsche would charge for a new steering wheel through the Tequipment program but it might or might not cost more than $600 USD. Find out and let me know if you'd like mine. Send me a PM and we can talk about this in detail.